Teacher

“Translators are great but they are like a navigation system. They guide very well but they won’t always give you the right result.”

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The class quietened as their new teacher entered. None of them had ever seen an alien before. They were super intrigued.

She could feel the students examining her as she entered. She walked to her desk and placed a translator down. Picking up a light pen, she turned around and wrote her name in the air before addressing the class. “Good morning everyone.”

“Good morning teacher.” She picked up the translator as it did its work, turning it around in her hand. “Translators are great but they are like a navigation system. They guide very well but they won’t always give you the right result.” Walking the floor, she observed some of the children as she went past. It was an even split between those struck in awe and those enthusiastically excited.

“As you know, I am from another planet. Our two peoples are running exchange programmes to help us learn about each other. This is how I came to be here today.”

The teacher sat on the edge of the desk. “I am very excited to be here and I hope you are too. You will be the first children from your planet to learn the main communication language of my people.”

Every child was silent. They appeared to be listening intently. She felt slightly unnerved by their focused attention but brushed it off to continue, “Welcome to the English Language.”

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No train journeys for me but still managing to write plenty – writing tips and well being article are my forte these days – not so many stories – you’re welcome to pop over! 🙂
Why not putting them on your blog – if you don’t mind me asking?

Heh, You’re in my feeds and, although my free time is limited due to enjoying family life, I do pop across from time to time 🙂

when I first set up this blog-like many writers I guess, I wanted a place to share my work where people other than my friends and family could see critique. I wanted to keep it specifically my work which I think is fairly standard among writers who create blogs in this way.

I also originally wanted it purely fiction focused so not much in relation to personal life. This thought has changed a little as many blogs I follow actually have a good mix of personal and fiction posts. One even uses the real world to create her poetry and haiku’s which is quite an interesting twist.

For sharing the things I read or like, I have an FB page and Twitter account. As well as my own posts, I use these to share anything I like on other blogs or things I see that might be useful to other writers like me.

To help improve, I also like doing the writing exercises that are posted in the various FB groups dedicated to writers and authors. Some of the people in these groups do actually critique rather than simply like which is really good and helpful to me. I also do the same for their work which I hope gives them the same feeling…

So what are your thoughts on blogging and sharing of other people’s work? 🙂

Hi Michael,
I’m feeling cynical today.
I’m coming to the conclusion that there are a lot of people in blog world just doing this for the ‘likes’ and I need to get over that.
I’ve met a lot of genuine people here – yourself included, that just want to say what they want to say and don’t mind so much what other people think of it. I probably started as the latter and have strayed too far into the latter for my comfort. I watch the stars and accumulating on my posts like (I imagine) a junkie watches the needle sliding into his (or her – let’s not get stereotypical here) vein.
I share all sorts of stuff here ranging from me singing to my artwork (aka doodles), with all sorts of writing in between. I happen to think that I’m not too shoddy a writer and that I’m getting better all the time, but most of all – I enjoy doing it.
It’s strange that it’s mostly strangers that like what I write, and (maybe not so strange that) a large proportion of them only like me after I like them. I should try just putting the posts in without reading anything else (their comments and posts on their blogs) for a while, but what would be the fun in that? I enjoy reading – period, and other people’s blogs are sometimes as interesting as novel. More so, sometimes.
I’m new to this; groping blindly in the dark – no matter how wide open my eyes seem to be and how much light seems to pass into my brain.
Okay, I think I’m starting to ramble now so that’ll do for my thoughts on that. 🙂
Here’s where I ask you an interesting enough question for you to want to keep up the conversation ….
Erm ….
What’s the best cure you’re found for cynicism? 🙂

Your personal faith sounds superb! Even if you never get a single other view ever again (and I’m sure you will) then that faith and those rules will see you through. And as for the number of views you get? That’s about what I get too when I let the blog coast. When I post regularly though, and read other people’s blogs then that number multiplies by (pick a number between 5 and 11 – it varies). I guess you give to get. The other thing I do is write to themes (my 2 at the moment are writing and well-being). That seems then to attract like minded people. Tagging posts with the themes helps too, for example when I posted about ‘Beauty’ last night, four people that I’d never met came along and liked the post. They, I guess, had ‘watches’ set on that tag.
I’m not cynical usually – I was just having a spell of it when I last posted.
Dinner time now.
Hope your day is going well. 🙂

This piece is interesting as, although the setting may be different, the key elements seem to resonate with teachers who’ve read it.

In truth, This piece was actually from a dream I had as a teenager. I used to get very vivid dreams as a kid. Still do sometimes but not so much now.

In the dream, I was one of the pupils. I had no idea that I was seeing the world through the eye’s of an alien until she spoke. Soon as I realised, I woke up. It’s one of a few I recorded on paper. Found it a couple months ago in a book and decided to pyrite it as a story.

I think this is the second dream I’ve turned into a story. I have others written down and hidden in different places. As I find them I think of ways I can make it a story.

You’ll have to join a couple of the ‘writers unite!’ FB groups. I’m on three of them. The workshop one is really good. 🙂

Love this story even though I don’t fully understand it. I think it’s perhaps because I don’t understand it that I love it. It could mean so many things! To me, it suggests that kids these days just don’t speak English properly and so someone that does (like an English teacher) might as well be from a different planet. Of course, you could just tell me what it really means – but what would be the fun in that?!
Thanks for sharing this, Michael – it’s good to connect again after a long gap. 🙂
Regards – Robert.